Some one hour into the ride, tragedy struck! And surely enough, as we had much anticipated, there sprung a leak in the bow section of the boat and it started to sink. There was utter panic and chaos on board and people were running to the stern of the boat and some jumping into the water. There were also women and children aboard. It was very terrifying.
Before anything else could possibly be done, we were all in the water. The boat soon disappeared from our sight. It sunk!
Two of the devotees in our group did not know how to swim and the others were not that good at it either. Then we saw one of the devotees who did not know how to swim lost grip of the wooden piece that he was clinging to and started to drown. That added to our panic. We were all in a state of shock and did not know if we were going to survive. We could not believe what was happening.
The buoyancy petrol tank sprang out of its hold and started to float although the rest of the boat was totally out of our sight. Seeing this, we quickly swam to it with all our might to grab hold of it. It was very difficult to hold it firmly as it was coated with a mixture of petrol and grease. However that was all we had. Another devotee was clinging on to a knapsack that he had found floating in the water but he was gradually drifting away from us and went out of our sight after a while.
We did not know the fate of the other passengers as it was utter chaos and panic everywhere and people trying to save themselves. As the ordeal went on we were merely left with our prayers. Each of us could only try to chant and call upon Krsna to save us as we were practically drowning and had no other hope. The dhotis that we were wearing made it more difficult for us to be in the water as it kept getting into our legs and hampering the swimming. With the shock slowly creeping on, we now faced a mental agony as to whether we were going to survive. It was very difficult to even chant Krsna’s name as the water kept going into our mouth constantly.
It was roughly around 0800 hours when the accident occurred and it was dragging on to almost an hour till we saw a boat passing by at a distance. We were all just hoping that any of the crew members on that boat spot us in the water as it was not possible for us to draw any attention by our endeavor. But to our dismay, no such thing happened. The boat slowly sailed away as we all just kept staring at it helplessly, which was our only hope.
The ordeal dragged on for another hour. With the passing of every second, we were only getting weaker and weaker and we were losing all hopes of survival. The previous day being ekadasi, we were not even well fed and that added to our weakness. But to our fortune, it was a fresh water lake and we could atleast quench our thirst with the water.
As we were entering the third hour of our ordeal we spotted another boat sailing at a distance. This time we were very much skeptical if it would come for our rescue or sail away like the first one. But nay, this time it was heading towards us. All of us were overjoyed that our prayers had been answered. Rescue operations had begun. Panic levels went down. We were very much relieved. It was the most unexpected thing that happened when we were all on the verge of giving up all hopes of survival. We were reminded of one example that Srila Prabupada cited many a times: that a drowning man, although he may be an expert swimmer cannot really save himself by his own endeavor unless Krishna wishes so and that he experiences great relief when someone comes for his rescue. We were so much relieved to have been rescued by the rescue workers!
We all thanked Srila Prabhupada and Krsna, particularly Nrsimhadev for having saved us. We then started calling out for each other to see if everyone has made it safely on to the rescue boat and to our amazement, there were no casualties and everyone made it safely on to the rescue boat; even the devotee whom we all thought had drowned!! But there was one devotee who was pretty badly injured with heat burns all over his body due to direct contact of his body with the tank that he was clinging on to, which became very hot in the sun. So he required medical attention. Everyone else made it safely.
We were then told about a similar accident that took place a few months earlier in the same place wherein twenty people had died. We then realized that it was only because of the prayers of all the passengers on board; the kirtan that we had hosted before the journey had begun, that we had a different fate. We thanked Srila Prabhupada and Krsna again and again.
We were then whisked away from the curious crowd of onlookers who had gathered around, back to the same lodging house that we had stay earlier.
Then it came to our knowledge about the ridiculous reason why it took three hours for the management of the ferry boat to come for rescue. They were haggling among themselves on the price of the rescue efforts. It took them some three hours to finally come to some settlement! We were on the verge of dying and they seemed to be more interested in their own monetary gain. Looks like money takes precedent over life in this part of the world. We were very disgusted to hear this and insisted that we did not want to go back again in another boat ride. We were extremely shaken and very frightened by the very idea of travelling again by any form of transport .
Upon our insistence, the ferry boat management finally agreed to send us back by a helicopter. It was for the first time that any of us were travelling by a helicopter. We were in a dilemma whether to take the helicopter ride or not after all that we had gone through. But we prayed to Nrsimhadev and very nervously took the ride back as we didn’t have any other choice. Everything went on smoothly and it took us an hour and a half to reach the capital city of Phnom Penh.
Once we settled in the capital, the shock of the ordeal slowly started to creep away and all of us had to rush to our respective embassies to get new passports as most of us damaged or lost our passports in the water. We just wanted to return home as quickly as possible as we were all visibly shaken by the ordeal and some of us required urgent medical attention.
With the help of our embassy staff we managed to leave the country without much of a hassle for Singapore. All went well and once we reached Singapore we had to rush the injured devotee to the burns ward of the local hospital for immediate treatment. After a stay of some weeks in the hospital he too recovered fully from his injuries.
On the whole it was something for each of us to remember as the whole incident had a profound impact on each of our lives.
One devotee recalls that just prior to the trip, he was in Vrndavan with his family where his five year old son fell from a tree and broke his arm. He was very disturbed with the incident and was contemplating if it was due to his offences, that his son was having to go through such pain. After the ordeal in Cambodia, he realized the real reason behind it. If the boy had not broken his arm, he was supposed to have been accompanying his father on the tragic trip to Cambodia wherein he would have definitely lost his life as it would have been totally impossible to save him. On realizing this, the devotee couldn’t help but to thank the Lord over and over again for having deliberately made him suffer the injury in his arm just to save him from the mouth of death.
Another devotee recollected how his whole life flashed in front of his eyes when he was on the verge of drowning. This generally happens to people before they die; a near death experience. But thankfully a Swiss National came for his rescue, who happened to be trained in rescue operations in the Army. He helped by holding him up until they managed to obtain a floating life jacket for him to wear on. The devotee thought that he was surely going to die but he was somehow saved by the mercy of the lord.
Another devotee recollected that if at all there had been a little more delay for the rescue boat to arrive, it would have costed him his life as he just couldn’t hold on any longer.
All the devotees were very thankful to the Lord for having saved them from the dreadful ordeal. It was indeed a very traumatizing experience and a lesson to learn.
The Lord is the protector of the devotee as he had declared in the Bhagavad Gita,
ksipram bhavati dharmatma
sasvac-chantim nigacchati
kaunteya pratijanihi
na me bhaktah pranasyati
“He quickly becomes righteous and attains lasting peace. O son of Kunti, declare it boldly that My devotee never perishes.”
We can only relish this sweet pastime of the Lord on how He saved all of us through his all merciful qualities!
Again and again we humbly bow down to Him, Hare krsna!!
All Glories To Srila Prabhupada!!!
